The Height of Fearlessness

A True Story of the Power of Perspective

Mimi Iwama & Mia Iwama Hastings

Written by Mia Iwama Hastings as told to her by her mother Mimi Iwama, this is a true story unlike any other: the story of the flower-mountain Hanaokayama, a loving mother with a tragic secret, and a nine-year-old girl who learned how to conquer fear.

Little Mi-chan is a sensitive, thoughtful child with a delicate constitution and powerful love for nature rivaled only by the strength of her devotion to her mother. At the tender age of nine, Mi-chan dutifully leaves everything behind to follow her mother on a life-changing journey to the top of Hanaokayama, the little flower mountain. There, she eagerly studies the life lessons her mother finds everywhere in the natural world surrounding them: the courageous sacrifice of a fallen cherry blossom, the boundless freedom of the roiling sea, and the impermanence of all things—from the softest rays of morning sunlight to the mightiest trees on the face of the mountain.

Mi-chan fills the pages of a notebook with the words and images her mother parcels out for her every day on the mountain, each one a precious meditation on the meaning of life, freedom, mindfulness and the power of perspective. Living carefree among trees and wildflowers so colorful they seem to have been painted onto the mountain itself, young Mi-chan cannot know that her mother’s lessons will be the only thing left standing between her and the all-consuming fear of the unknown.

Mia Iwama Hastings

Born and raised in California, Mia Iwama Hastings has a B.A. in Classics magna cum laude from Brown University and an M.A. in English from University College London. Mia is a marketing specialist. She lives in London with her husband, Richard.

Mimi Iwama

Born in Kumamoto, Japan, Mimi moved to the United States in 1959 to study at the School of International Service at American University in Washington, D.C. She has worked for local newspaper, radio, and television outlets and in community development and public relations in California. She has four children.

Mimi decided to collaborate with her youngest daughter, Mia, to fulfil her lifelong dream of sharing her mother’s inspirational story and wisdom with the world.